Nearly one in four Americans, 22%, say they would not like to have a Muslim as a neighbor.

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Almost four in ten, 39%, advocate that Muslims here should carry special I.D. That same number admit that they do hold some "prejudice" against Muslims. Forty-four percent say their religious views are too "extreme."

I know a Muslim family here in Winnipeg - nicest people I've ever met...HOWEVER I too am predjudice against CERTAIN Muslims. The radical fundamentalist ones. Having said that I also think that certain members of the so called Christian Right are the spawns of Satan.

While Americans tend to disagree with the notion that Muslims living in the United States are sympathetic to al-Qaeda, a significant 34% believe they do back al-Qaeda. And fewer than half -- 49% -- believe U.S. Muslims are loyal to the United States.

Almost four in ten, 39%, advocate that Muslims here should carry special I.D.

Now if Muslims and queers were required to wear their identities on their sleeves— a yellow crescent, and let's say a black triangle, then everybody could know who is who.

In every case, Americans who actually know any Muslims are more sympathethic.

The saddest part of these attitudes is that they discourage and intimidate the very people whose speaking up could do most to correct misconceptions and open hearts--American Muslims--from doing so. Very few people are comfortable speaking up--particularly if it's to articulate something nuanced and complex--when they feel their audience is assigning the burden of proving or disproving sweeping assumptions about them as members of some (locally outnumbered) collective to everything they say. And the more distrusted or even loathed that imaginary collective seems to be in the audience's minds, the worse the intimidation factor is. I have heard this over and over from my Muslim students and colleagues, and I have had just enough similar experiences as a Jew to understand exactly what they mean. Actually probably everyone has experienced something, albeit perhaps vaguely, similar to this at some point--which one might like to think would make for more sympathetic listening, but unfortunately that's often not how it works. It's a vicious circle.